Sharing Of Needles Among Drug Users May Be Largely Myth

February 13, 1986|United Press International

BOSTON — Most intravenous drug users, a high-risk group to contract AIDS, are very careful who they share their needles with and many do not share them at all, despite the myth that addicts are careless about their habits, researchers said Wednesday.

While the transmission of the deadly disease is associated with the ``sharing of blood-contaminated needles,`` addicts are more aware of the risks and would respond to public information campaigns, said John L. Black, a clinical psychologist at the Veterans Administration Medical Center in Dallas.

These would be especially important in areas where there is a drug abuse problem but AIDS is uncommon, he said.

Intravenous drug users account for 17 percent of the AIDS cases, the second largest group at risk for acquired immune deficiency syndrome. The majority of cases are homosexual men.

In a study of the behavior of needle-sharing reported in The New England Journal of Medicine, Black found one-third never shared needles at all.

The researchers studied 224 male drug abusers admitted to a 30-day treatment program at the Dallas medical center in a 19-month period. The average frequency of drug use was once daily.

Among the intravenous users, 68 percent or 131 engaged in needle-sharing, but 77 percent of them shared only with close friends and relatives and 23 percent with casual acquaintances and strangers.

The drugs used were heroin, amphetamines, cocaine, heroin and cocaine in combination, and pentazocine, a painkiller.

``Needle-sharing was reported by over 50 percent of the subjects in each drug group,`` the study said, indicating it is ``common and frequently practiced among drug users.``

Noting street addicts were aware of the risk of AIDS and showed an increased interest in using new needles, Black noted ``the sterotype of guys going into shooting galleries doesn`t hold up. Most are showing some caution already. Casual contact is not very prevalent.``

But the psychologists did not just advocate making more syringes available because ``needle-sharing has been found to be associated with socialization, communal feelings and protection in the drug culture.``

A University of California study indicated that AIDS infection among intravenous drug users in California has not reached the ``alarmingly high levels`` observed in the northeast United States, with the greatest concentration in the New York City and New Jersey area.